{"id":12972,"date":"2026-09-03T09:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T09:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/12972\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T09:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T09:42:09","slug":"for-india-bangladeshs-talk-of-joining-islamic-nato-raises-red-flags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/12972\/","title":{"rendered":"For India, Bangladesh\u2019s talk of joining \u2018Islamic Nato\u2019 raises red flags"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bangladesh<\/a>\u2019s potential entry into a defence pact with Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan could give Dhaka fresh leverage in its dealings with India<\/a>, but observers warn the move risks fracturing its long-standing strategic neutrality and alarming a hawkish New Delhi.<\/p>\n

Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman told parliament on August 27 that Bangladesh was considering joining the Mecca pact, a security framework signed last month. Earlier reports citing unnamed sources said the invitation originated from Riyadh.<\/p>\n

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Humayun Kabir also told reporters: \u201cIf there is a security arrangement among Islamic nations in the Middle East, it is not unusual for us to consider participating. It is being viewed positively.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the agreement signed on August 7 in Mecca, an armed attack against any signatory is treated as an attack against all members \u2013 earning the arrangement the informal moniker \u201cIslamic Nato.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Turkey\u2019sTurkey\u2019s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (left), Saudi Arabia\u2019s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (centre) and Pakistan\u2019s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif meeting in Mecca in August. Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed a joint defence agreement on August 7. Photo: AFP<\/p>\n

Shafi Md. Mostofa, an associate professor at the University of Dhaka, said that joining the pact would compel India to be \u201cmuch more cautious and respectful while dealing with [Dhaka].\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bangladesh\u2019s potential entry into a defence pact with Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan could give Dhaka fresh leverage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5930,7779,5928,5931,5079,611,156,7778,157,3019,7777,5933,1613,3431,466],"class_list":["post-12972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-bangladesh","tag-bangladesh-nationalist-party","tag-bay-of-bengal","tag-dhaka","tag-gaza","tag-india","tag-iran","tag-islamabad","tag-israel","tag-lebanon","tag-mecca","tag-new-delhi","tag-pakistan","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-turkey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}